“Very satisfied” Craig Moore quits embattled Brisbane Roar

Former Socceroos defender Craig Moore has quit as Brisbane Roar’s football director in what could be the first in a series of sweeping changes at the embattled A-League club.

In a shock move, Moore handed in his resignation on Tuesday and will depart the club after serving his two months of notice.

Moore began in the role in June 2015 and was a key member of the football department under the reign of coach John Aloisi.

The 42-year-old said it was a decision he reached on his own, having achieved as much as he felt possible at the club he once captained.

“I would like to thank Brisbane Roar for the opportunity,” Moore said in a statement.

“My aim was to help build a stronger club.

“With the academy soon starting and the new training facility near completion, I feel very satisfied.

“I will now look at exploring new opportunities and I wish the players and supporters success moving forward.”

Moore had been previously linked to the football director’s job at Scottish club Rangers.

Brisbane finished third on the ladder in Moore’s first two seasons at the club but things have turned sour over the last few months.

Moore and Aloisi have been jointly responsible for recruitment at the Roar – and their decisions on that front have come under huge scrutiny this season, with their battle-weary squad notching just three wins in 16 games.

Aloisi signed a three-year deal last year and despite Brisbane’s horrid run of results, it’s believed his position is not under any threat.

But a total of 17 senior players are coming off contract and on current form, few of them are likely to see their deals renewed.

The blowtorch will soon turn on the Roar’s fitness and conditioning staff, who have overseen a disastrous campaign in which a handful of players have been consistently hampered by injury – and the ones who have avoided injury have not reached their full fitness capacity.

An internal review into the club’s operations, following a recent visit to Roar training by respected Socceroos medicos Les Gelis and Craig Duncan, is expected to shed further light on where and how things have gone so wrong.

His own terms; he resigned “effective immediately” and then later changed his mind to work his two months notice. You can’t push someone out the door, announce they’ve gone, then call them up and ask them to stay longer.

Waz- Very true, as reported ,but still strange nevertheless.
The CEO wished him all the best in his new endeavours which now are not scheduled to begin for another 2 months.
Are things going to change on the field over the next 2 months? Cheers jb.

His departure is proving popular with fans at least, which says more about the low-profile he kept at the club and the hangover from Ange’s days than anything he may/may not have done over the last couple of years.

Much mirth has been had over his expression “success” that has apparently been achieved during his time with fans asking, “what success”?

Logan was an initiative by Logan Council, Football Brisbane and David Pourre so it’s not there.

The Academy has largely been built by Kingsman and Drew Sherman so it’s not there either.

And 3rd, 3rd, and currently 9th is hardly success, is it??

So Craig’s legacy is what, what should he be remembered for?

Most likely recruitment – he brought Corona, Kristensen, Avraam and Bautheac to the club amongst his many successes.

But there were as many recruiting failures as there were successes, who could forget the Spanish bloke with two left feet?

He’s obviously not carrying the can for this season as it was his choice to leave, but at least there is some significant change given JA is secure until Christmas at least. The feeling amongst fans though is they want more change – and tomorrow night’s attendance might persuade the club that more visible change is needed too.

Waz – The thousand dollar payout line “the Spaniard with the two left feet”
Is that the same guy who kept getting pushed on to the field as a substitute, and ninety nine times out of a hundred was played In a right sided position.
The question that should have been asked was “Who brought the guy all the way from Spain, where in 4 seasons (3 years) he had played only 64 games with 4 different clubs) and of course what was the total cost of the exercise to the club all for 3 STARTS in the HAL.????
It’s almost as good a recruitment story as Kaluderovic ,that man of many clubs (19 in 14 seasons), scoring goals wherever he has gone, and who,after scoring 5 goals in 10 games for Roar ,was released by—–JA, —as superfluous to requirements !!!
That’s the same player who is now scoring regularly for Wellington,and surprise surprise, a lot of them scored with his head, a talent almost non-existent in present day Roar forward lines..
Recruitment???,question after question after question. Cheers jb.

Waz – Watching Kaluderovic playing with Wellington and following Jamie’s wanderings from Germany to Scotland It makes me wonder just how the two of them would have gone playing in the same team.
Takes me back to a front pairing of Kocsis (a master in the air) and Puskas (he of the cannonball shot).playing for one of the World’s great teams ,Hungary vintage 1950 to 1955.
As Iv’e said to you before, all it takes is a little imagination. Cheers jb.

Seems also that one report at least is indicating that Craig Moore left because of the lack of backup from the Bakries. True or false ,who knows.
Shame about the Roar throughout its existence “The big club that never was ” and IMO you can trace it back to poor ownership(s) from day one, with bad decisions and shaky finances the order of the day.
Potential’s always been there to be a big club, still is, but not until the mix of owner, management, coach players , back up staff is on song.
Ange’s shadow has been carrying them from Mulvey through to the Dodgy brothers, despite the ownership in that period, but shadows fade away eventually as the Sun sets, thats where Roar are currently in the “Twilight Zone”.
They’ve been there before though pre-Ange, and pulled through dwindling crowds, Frankies follies and Bombolas blunders(although his Ange recruiting was a lucky lottery win).

Lack of backup from the Bakries? Is he saying that if they’d been given $5m+ to spend on players instead of the club record $4m+ they wouldn’t have been in 9th position??

And as part of his “I’m very satisfied with my success” he cites the Academy which cost the club $1m to set up paid for by the Bakries, and the new Logan Training center which is a $9m investment by Logan City Council but backed by personal guarantees from the Bakries.

People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones – Maybe if the football department had been better run they wouldn’t be in this position??

Wasn’t the Backries Blame Game the favourite whine of the Brisbane fan over the last few years? Their lack of financial input and “fan engagement”was oft cited (daily on the Roar) as a reason, despite Roar being title contenders for all bar this season, for Roar fans to walk away, call their friends to walk away, or threaten to walk away from the club.

Surely all of that moaning wasn’t for nothing??? So now it’s the “football department”…..

The Bakries need to be held accountable for their part, and fans are the best people to do that.

But Moore benefitted from over $4m in available wages for the first team, he can’t walk away and cite the Bakries when he’s had that amount of money thrown his way. The spending on coaching and support services is also at record levels so who’s to blame?

The Bakries for ponying up a record amount of money?

Or the football department for not delivering despite a record amount of money?

The W League team also got a record amount of money too this season, look how well they’re doing!

So, what exactly is a football director? I suppose a football director is above the head coach in general. Is this right?

Then, how many football director are in Brisbane Roar?

According to some reports, Moore is the one signing the player contracts. How many signatories in a professional football contract. Maybe, there are 2 or more, football director, technical director, head coach, CEO, etc.

The really strange thing, if reports can be believed, is that the Bakries have turned down two $10 million offers to buy them out.

It is impossible to know what or what isn’t going on within the club. The results on the field, however, are very clear, and by that measure Moore’s “very satisfied” simply looks facetious.

A number of posters on the Roar supporters website have indicated they will not attend games as Suncorp until Aloisi is gone. Pourre was very unwise to publicly guarantee Aloisi his job into next season, because it places the club in a very difficult position if Aloisi’s position becomes untenable in the face of continuing losses and attendances approaching 5000, both of which are likely. Pourre’s unequivocal support for Aloisi would be more understandable if he had a record of success, but he was a calamity at Heart and his two third place finishes were achieved with an ageing, but still very good, team built by other coaches. This team is his, and we have Melbourne Heart all over again.

My guess is that attendance on Thursday will dip below 7000. The only upside in this whole mess is that Brisbane Roar management are creating a group of former Roar supporters who will welcome a new club with open arms, thereby creating the context for a bracing derby rivalry.

JAs survival is nothing short of miraculous, in any other country in the world he would have gone before Christmas but he survives. Partly because of the lack of suitable replacements I recon, partly because he has 2 1/2 years on his contract and would be expensive to pay out, and partly because something went on in winter with strength and conditioning that he’s not being blamed for.

Pourre is no fool though, he promised change behind the scenes so let’s see what happens – Moore moving on would be part of that, Strength and Conditioning will be overhauled, if he’s smart a new TD will be brought in above Aloisi to run all of football, and if he’s brave move Ross on as well. And the guarantee only extends to the start of next season so if it’s stuffed up again JA must be gone, but as you say that would be another season wasted and 5k crowds.

And as for fans waiting to defect to a second Brisbane club; if a club comes in it needs to have serious financial backing otherwise it will fail as surely as GC and Fury did.

The two Sydney/Melbourne clubs have serious financial clout, Jets do too, and the new southern Sydney bid with its proposed $300m stadium and mega-backing may yet blow everyone away. So a poor Brusbsne club run on a shoestring will be in a race for 7th place at best, Brisbane folk won’t turn out and watch that and 3-5k crowds will be as good as it gets.

And as for the fans that defect – how long before they’re unhappy with results, the coach, the signings, the Board etc at the new club and they start boycotting there? Not long I recon … the longer the ffa leaves expansion the worse this will get and if Brisbane’s first team struggles financial it’s a certainty the second club will too. It’s a tough world.

The other nail in the coffin for a second Brisbane team is that Roar will be sold before they see light of day, if Roar get new owners who invest the second team will be no better than Heart2. Gone within two seasons though.

Previously they’ve said Ross is appointed by coach John, so not sure that they would move one on. But I tend to agree with you Waz, Brisbane has not proved very fruitful for a successful football club. Roar and its predecessors seem to have been poorly managed, since ever (even in the successful years). Not because of players, Kossie has said several times that Queensland (not Roar, but the region) is years ahead of the rest of Australia in the production of footballers. But surely we must be decades behind in the production of coaches and managers. Why?

I recall that things got very bad at CCM before Charlesworth moved, Mid. Unfortunately, the Brisbane management seem hell bent on taking that one step further.

I can only reiterate how unwise it was for Pourre to box himself in. I, and many other Brisbane supporters, believe that the motive is financial – that the Bakries don’t want to pay out Aloisi’s contract, which still has 2.5 years to go. Thus they are choosing to gamble on him rather than pay him out.

He has a full squad at his disposal for Thursday night. If Brisbane lose, it will be fascinating to hear his excuses.

I lived the Mariner Moss then Walmsley …. heaps of beyond poor signing often on good money players Like Mat Sim ….

What is interesting is how Charlesworth went about fixing it… he appointed Harry Rednapp to find him a coach and laid out the grounds rules for the new coach…

Rednapp to his credit came to Australia and studies our systems, and that the Mariners would want to have some key older players with youth players around them.

Rednapp to his credit spent his time and choose Okon who from a Mariners point of view has been a success…. his recruitment has been first class and it hard to think of one signing he has made that has not delivered…

I get the feeling Roar management may struggle to lay out what they want to be as a club and recruit a coach for that …. I have no doubt their are better coaches than Okon out there but Okon is a coach for what the club wants to be…

Lionheart – You appear to want to know what a Director of Football does in a professional club.
As the title suggests he is in theory the member of the Board of Directors who has as his bailiewick, all football matters in the operation of the club.
He should be responsible to the Chairman, and should make regular reports to that person ,and his other directors ,who ,as members of the board should also be charged with certain tasks pertaining to the overall successful workings of the club,.eg travel,ground availability, sponsorship, revenue,finance, legal matters etc etc..
As Director of Football he will also have input into the hiring and firing of anyone employed to service the football side of the operation,coaches, medical people,trainers and of course ,players in all teams.
Now as you can imagine this is a big ,big job and a good D of F will surround himself with people who understand his aims and how he wants to go about attaining those aims. He will constantly hold gatherings of those people and will ,as said before, report any findings back to the chairman and his, the chairman’s, inner circle,usually the Vice chairman,secretary and treasurer.
This is what happens in big business, and today football is on the verge of becoming big business, but sometime one could be forgiven for wondering if the management styles of the clubs are keeping pace.
That my friend should be the job of a “true” Director of Football. Cheers jb..